Since I can't find a post here for last year's Dragon Inc team (which was reformed as Lake Effect for reasons I'm not going to go into) and since the one I found for the Cleveland Slam that came before that is definitely outdated, and since I made some changes when I took over as administrator (slammaster), here's how we've done and are doing things this year.

We held qualifiers at multiple locations:Canton's First Friday Poetry Spectacular (January, February, March, and April)Slam is held monthly on the first Friday at either the Canton Cultural Center for the Arts (1001 Market Ave. N. , Canton, OH 44702) or at the Arts in Stark Education Center (1014 Cleveland Ave. NW, Canton, OH 44702). This slam is held as part of a monthly city arts festival. (Our normal performance space at the Cultural Center is also the recital hall for the Canton Symphony Orchestra. If the Symphony is performing during the First Friday festival, our show is moved to the Education Center. ) The slam is managed and promoted by my own The Poet's Haven press. These slams are either Ustreamed or uploaded to YouTube.

Root-N-Slam Poetry Series (January, February, March)This is an open-mic and slam series held monthly on the fourth Friday at The Root Café (15118 Detroit Ave. , Lakewood, OH 44107). The show is managed and promoted by Tom Noy.

Saturday Night With The Poet's Haven (April)Our Last Chance Slam was held at my bimonthly Poet's Haven event at Phoenix Coffee (4441 Mayfield Road, South Euclid, OH 44121). We held the Last Chance Slam here instead of at Root-N-Slam because April's Root-N-Slam show conflicted with Cleveland's SlamU youth team's finals.

Our slam final was a special event held during Versified Expressions' "Freedom of Speech" open-mic event on May 8th, at Paolo's Bar & Grill (1 West Exchange, Akron, OH 44308). This was arranged because May's First Friday Slam conflicted with the annual Jawbone poetry event in Kent, Ohio, which is held in memory of the students who died in the 1970 Kent State massacre.

Poets placing 1st - 3rd place in a qualifier are given points accordingly:1st: 5pts2nd: 4pts3rd: 3ptsEveryone else gets 1 point for participating.

The same points are awarded for the top three poets not already qualified for finals at the last chance slam.

The top 10 poets after all qualification bouts have been completed will move to finals and compete for one of four spots on the team. If a qualified poet declines the invitation to finals, that spot will go to the poet with the next highest level of points. In the event of a tie in points, the number of poets moving on to finals may be changed to anything between 8 and 12. (This year had 9 poets in finals. )

Each qualification bout will be one round.

The final slam will be a 3 rounds, with points accumulating between each round. No repeats are allowed between the three rounds.

After all three rounds, the following will be announced:the core team (top 4 poets)the alternate (5th place poet)the first runner-up (6th place)

In the event one of the core team members is unable to compete in one of the slams that the team is in, the alternate will take that team member's place. The alternate will attend team practices and workshops, and will be included as a team member in any team appearances. If one of the team members resigns or is disqualified, the alternate will take that team member's place on the core team and the first runner-up will be asked to be the new alternate. The first runner-up will not be required to attend practices and workshops, but will be allowed to attend any public Lake Effect workshops free of charge.

Team member disqualifications must be put to a vote among the other team members, alternate, and slamministrator, and must be approved by a majority. Causes for a disqualification vote include: a team member being found to have committed plagiarism; a team member missing four or more team practices; a team member being arrested for a felony, violent crime, or a drug-related charge; a team member showing up at practices, workshops, or team appearances under the influence of drugs or alcohol; and/or a team member acting in any manner that reflects negatively upon the Lake Effect Poetry team and organization.

The four core team members, alternate, and first runner-up are automatically qualified for the final competition for our IWPS spot and all the female poets on that list are automatically qualified for the final competition for our next WOWPS spot. We will hold additional qualification slams for the IWPS and WOWPS spots, awarding points in the same fashion described above, and hold separate finals for both.